It has been a long time since the last newsletter appeared on this site, but now I have news that I’m sure you’ll agree was worth waiting for.

I am reviving my own label, Gaslight Records, in partnership with one of the largest independent distributors in Germany, Icare-Media. Icare (formerly SX distribution) worked on ‘Pavane’ a few years ago and now they have linked up with Sony which means that my CDs will be in all the major chain stores throughout Germany and will be widely available across Europe. Furthermore, I will be employing a professional promotion company to get radio play and magazine reviews. In addition there will be promotional CD singles for radio and advertising in all the major German rock magazines so hopefully the shop assistants won’t say ‘whose Paul Roland?’ if you ask for one of my CDs in the future.

Icare and Gaslight have agreed on a schedule of releases so that there will be no more frustrating delays in releasing my albums as has happened with Black Widow.

The first release will be ‘Re-Animator’ (GASCD 555) on June 15 followed by a new album (as yet untitled) which I recorded in September and which I am hoping to put the finishing touches to in time for its release in October. Next year I plan to release the first in a series of re-issues of the older albums with extra tracks, but my priority at the moment is to re-establish myself as an active recording artist and not dwell on the past. With that in mind I hope to be able to announce some live concerts in the near future at which I will be featuring all new songs with only a few familiar tunes from older times.

For more information visit Icare at icare-media-distribution.de

Older CDs

A limited number of copies of ‘Pavane’ and the double CD compilation ‘Gaslight Tales’ are still available from the PRAS (17 West Park Avenue Cliftonville Margate Kent CT9 3LH Great Britain/UK). The price of ‘Pavane’ is £10 (15 euros) including postage and the price of ‘Gaslight Tales’ is £15 (20 euros) including postage. Those of you living in Germany might find it easier to order from German indie specialist jellyfant mailorder by going to jellyfant.com

For those who can’t wait for the re-issue of the older albums (‘Danse Macabre’, ‘Masque’, ‘Gargoyles’ etc) they can be downloaded from
CD baby ( www.cdbaby.com/cd/proland9) and their numerous partners Audiolunchbox, Napster, MusicNet and AppleiTunes
( www.apple.com/itunes/music/) etc.

New Website

The new website concerned with my books rather than my music is now complete and can be found at www.paulroland.net

The designer Mikael Runnstrom has done a magnificent job creating an animated and very stylish site which I am very proud of and for which I thank him very much indeed.

Latest Books

This summer sees the publication of a number of books that I thoroughly enjoyed writing over the past year or so. ‘The Complete Book of Ghosts’, ‘Nazis and the Occult’ and ‘In The Minds of Murderers’ will be published in April, May and September respectively by Arcturus UK. The titles of the first two books are self explanatory but the third is actually a book on criminal psychology and the science of profiling which I found particularly stimulating. I’m also gratified by the fact that it will feature an interview and introduction by former FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood who is the leading expert on sexual homicide. His endorsement is a source of great satisfaction to me to put alongside that of Ze’ev ben Shimon Halevi (who wrote the foreward to my ‘Complete Kabbalah Course’) and Colin Wilson (who wrote the introduction to ‘I Remember Dying’). But for all the time, pleasure and pressure that writing books brings I will continue to create music so long as there are people who enjoy listening to it.

Write To Me!!

Yes, I’d love to hear from you. Whether you want to tell me which album you would like to see reissued first or if you can’t find a particular release, or even if you just want to tell me that my songs have given you nightmares (!) write to me at p.roland (at) lycos.co.uk or through the German website paul (at) paulroland.de and I promise to reply personally. Unfortunately, the last newsletter printed an out of date address (p.roland (at) tiscali) which is no longer active so I apologise if you wrote and did not receive a reply. But I promise to reply if you write to me at the above e-mail addresses. I was also unable to access to my German mailbox for many months and now have 1,000 messages to work through so please allow some time for me to respond. And for those who wrote offering to translate reviews from their language into English so I can finally find out what reviewers have been saying all these years I thank you and can tell you that I have finally found the missing CD master with the 7 tracks I offered to send as a thank you for the translations (details in the last website newsletter). Anyone else who would like a copy of this CDR all you have to do is write two reviews of any two of my albums for Amazon or CD baby or any other music site you choose. Then tell me where to find the reviews and I will send you the CD with the rare and unreleased tracks.

Maybe I’ll see you at a concert in Germany sometime. If you can make it don’t be shy – introduce yourself. I don’t bite!